About 40 Indians from Punjab are believed to be held as captives in Iraq since last year. One of them who claimed to have escaped from there had earlier made a claim that the others might have been killed.

During the Question Hour in the Lok Sabha, Swaraj said that if they were stranded, the government would have brought them long back but they are in the captivity of terrorists. "I completely don't believe that those people are dead ... If we believed that boy's version then I would have told this House that all are dead. But we don't believe the boy's claim and that is why we are searching for the people," she said.

Referring to a recent meeting in which foreign ministers from Arab countries and 15 ministers participated, Swaraj said the heads of two major nations told me that the Indians were alive.